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Presentation Infographics: Sometimes More is Less

When putting a presentation together, anticipation builds over the creation of the “money slide”, the one that will illuminate your idea and reinforce your argument. Often, this slide takes the shape of an infographic. A natural result, for infographics are powerful visual aids for conveying complicated information. Motivated by the notion that providing more information will persuade an audience, presenters tend to overload their infographics. The outcome, however, is typically the reverse.

Craziest PowerPoint Slide (Photo credit: Geetesh Bajaj)

The all-important infographic becomes confusing: lines swirl all over the page, icons crowd the space, and text boxes are squashed next to each other in never ending gridlock. With too much detail, the infographic is so complex that the message is lost in all the confusion.

You want to simplify but can’t let go of any piece of the infographic. What’s a presenter to do?

Here are three easy steps to help regain control of your infographic, and it begins with adding more content to your presentation.

Deconstruct. Take a step back and look at what you are really trying to represent. Whether it’s computer network schematics or manufacturing distribution chains, label each of the main parts of the system that you are trying to represent. Then redraw the infographic using only those labels. This is a more simplified version, and while it does not tell the whole story, it will provide an overview of your concept. This becomes your first slide.

Build. Each main part of the infographic then becomes a slide of its own. This will provide you with more room to show all of the detail and relationships pertaining to each specific part. If you need to make connections to the other parts, use lines that link to an icon representing the labels of the other parts. You may even have enough space to add more descriptive detail to strengthen your message.

What you are doing by breaking out the main parts of your original infographic into separate slides is breaking up your content into more concise, more digestible pieces of information.

Connect. You have broken up your content to facilitate comprehension, but presenting the information is not always a linear process. Presenters must match their audience’s needs, and need the flexibility to discuss the complex details of parts of the infographic that are most relevant. You can make your infographic interactive. PowerPoint allows you to move from slide to slide using hyperlinks and navigation buttons. Link parts of your main infographic to the broken out slides, return to the main infographic at any point, and easily weave through the slides so that you can cover what is most important to your audience.

Take a look at your presentation’s infographics. Are they doing the job you intended them to do? Is the big picture clear at a glance? Are the interrelationships evident? If your audience is taking too much time to decipher the information on your slide, then they are not listening to what you have to say. Simplify your infographics, add more slides if needed, and add interactivity to easily connect all of your information.

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